Krauthammer: ‘If There’s a Pattern Here It’s a War on Police’

On Fox News this week, columnist and Fox contributor Charles Krauthammer commented on the “Black Lives Matter” movement and the storm of criticism directed at law enforcement, saying the narrative that it’s “open season on young black men and police are responsible is preposterous.” If there’s a war on anyone, he argued, it’s a “war on police.”

Krauthammer began by agreeing with Washington Post’s Jason Riley that the police aren’t the problem. Using the Eric Garner case as an example, Krauthammer said that though he believed there was a miscarriage of justice in the case, there’s “not a shred of evidence” race was the motivator for the incident:

The narrative about it’s open season on young black men and police are responsible is preposterous. Let’s take the most egregious case. The one where I think there was a miscarriage of justice with the grand jury in Staten Island in the Garner case. There is not a shred of evidence that race had had anything to do with that event. Even in Ferguson here was a guy who essentially assaulted a police officer, tried to get his gun. There was no evidence that he was acting because of racial motives.

Citing a number of recent attacks on law enforcement, Krauthammer said that despite the popular “narrative” the real “pattern” is a “war on police”:

I’ll tell you if there is a narrative here, if there is a pattern, it’s what’s happening on the streets in regard to police. Let me give you just a run down. Same day as the shooting in New York, St. Louis off-duty cop shot at. December 21, Tarpon Springs, Florida, police officer shot at, run over by a car. Killed. Christmas Day, Durham [NC], police officer shot at. December 27th, Flagstaff [AZ], police officer shot and on the street. Yesterday, Dade City, Florida, two officers shot at. Yesterday, L.A., two police officers shot at, on the highway. If there is a pattern here, it’s the war on police. I don’t see a war on young black men.